


Makes a Great Gift!

by EvilMuffins (orphan_account)



Category: Dangan Ronpa
Genre: F/M, Fluff, POV Outsider, Post-Canon, Togafuka exchange, setting ur bff up with the grump of her dreams
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-19
Updated: 2018-08-19
Packaged: 2019-06-29 07:36:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15724896
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/EvilMuffins
Summary: He was so grumpy, Komaru thought again. Although she still wasn’t completely certain that she also saw whatever it was that her friend saw in him, they suited one another and Komaru was determined to make this work. If she could help to save all of Towa City, she could almost certainly get one (1) sour-puss to admit his feelings, couldn’t she?---Komaru is determined to have Togami confess his feelings for her best friend.





	Makes a Great Gift!

Komaru Naegi soon discovered that she had learned a great many things after being freed from her imprisonment in that cramped Towa City apartment: How to fight in order to protect a dear friend; how to make life or death choices; how to take care of herself… and the very startling notion that real life romance is, in fact, considerably different from that found in the typical shoujo manga.

She just couldn’t understand it.

Byakuya Togami was undeniably head over heels in love with Touko Fukawa (a fact which he would, on no uncertain terms, deny), and had been for sometime now. So why wasn’t he pushing her up against the office wall, rashiver her lips until she was breathless?

That was always how it went in her manga: The love interest would steal the heroine’s first kiss, no request for permission crossing the confident smirk drawn across his boyishly angular face.

“Fukawa!”

“Y-yes?” she peeped, and Komaru saw the hope twinkling behind her glasses as her eyes darted up from the notebook she had been furiously scrawling in, pen halting in mid-air as if the very sound of her name from his lips had grabbed hold of her wrist. If it had been Komaru- or anyone else- attempting her gain her attention while she was in the midst of plotting out her newest novel, nothing short of a second apocalypse breaking out would have caused her to take notice.

“Would you take these files up to Naegi in his office?” Togami asked, brandishing a stack of papers. The request had been posed as a question, rather than a demand, Komaru realised, a smile on her face. While the stern man that Touko had spoken of each night as they fell asleep in the otherwise abandoned hotel, still bustled about the halls of the Foundation building, even Komaru could tell that something- slight as it may have been- was different from that of her best friend’s stories, and _not_ because of the… enhancements that Touko added to the impassioned recountings.

“Of course!” Touko agreed readily, taking off toward the elevators with the papers clutched tightly to her chest.

This left Komaru alone to blink up at Togami, attempting to recall if this were the first time they had been alone together since she and Touko had been retrieved from the disaster zone some months earlier.

“May I help you?” Togami asked, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose although Komaru had never actually noticed them to slip in the entire time that she had known him.

“Why don’t you just tell Touko-chan that you love her?” Komaru asked point blank, hoping that her words would come across with the youthful innocence hopefully afforded by her baby-round face, rather than the frustration that she truly felt.

Although Komaru hadn’t thought it possible for the man to be any more ridged, Togami stiffened, standing as still as if he were drawn on a page in one of Komaru’s manga.

“Tell her…” he repeated slowly, as if Komaru had spoken in a foreign language, something that he likely would have processed far more easily than what she had said. “That I _what?_ This- this is a work environment, and I hardly think that it’s appropriate to-“

“That didn’t sound like a ‘no’,” Komaru insisted, hands upon her hips. “So what’s stopping you?”

An odd light flickered in Togami’s eyes, and although it could have been only from the fluorescent bulbs overhead glinting in her glasses, Komaru had seen the very same expression lurking behind Touko’s wire frames many times before.

_Fear…?_

The man who had survived a cut-throat race to become sole heir as only a child; had lived through a vicious killing game; had faced down a city full of murderous robots during an apocalypse; had waited stalwart for rescue in that very same city under siege- _Byakuya Togami_ was afraid.

“Go help Fukawa,” he uttered flatly. “Your brother probably has her waylaid with his incessant chatter again.”

What possible reason could Togami ever have for being afraid of letting Touko know that he returned her feelings? Komaru pondered as she wandered down the hall. She certainly wasn’t going to turn him down. Could Syo have been the problem? But she loved him as well, and wouldn’t dare hurt him.

The love interests in her manga were never afraid…

Turning around so quickly that the sole of her shoe squealed on the flooring, Komaru jogged back toward the office where she had left Togami, allowing the idea suddenly playing through her head to nip at her heels.

The office door flew open, and Komaru almost thought that she saw Togami jump, just slightly. (he was probably just itchy, she thought, generously. Being cranky would do that to a person. Touko always seemed to be more on the itchy side than not, at least)

Grabbing the last blank sheet of paper out of the printer tray on the desk (without bothering to refill it), Komaru waved it in Togami’s direction.

“I know how you can express your feelings to Touko-chan, without actually saying them out loud!” Komaru declared, using her free hand to snatch up both a pencil and pen as well, as if waving two writing implements instead of one would drive home her point without need for explanation.

Togami wrinkled up his nose so emphatically that his glasses barely avoided slipping off his face entirely. “Do you really think that I have time to scribble some sort of confession note like a grade-schooler? I’ll have you know that I trusted Fukawa’s judgment in allowing you to intern here at Future Foundation as junior member now that she has become a full-fledged asset among our ranks, however you are now giving me cause to have my doubts about permitting a child to fritter away our time.”

“You’re wrong!” Komaru challenged, crossing her arms over her chest while still holding the pen and paper.

“Oh?” Togami replied simply, waiting for her to prove him wrong.

He was so grumpy, Komaru thought again. Although she still wasn’t completely certain that she also saw whatever it was that her friend saw in him, they suited one another and Komaru was determined to make this work. If she could help to save all of Towa City, she could almost certainly get one (1) sour-puss to admit his feelings, couldn’t she?

“It’s not going to be a note at all; I want to you to draw a confession manga.”

“A _what_ now?” Despite the unwelcoming tone in his voice, Komaru thought that she could detect a glimmer of curiosity dawning at the corner of his eye.

“Well,” Komaru said, pulling out a seat for Togami at his own desk, before pushing aside the keyboard and mouse to neatly layout the paper and drawing utensils, hoping to appeal to his sensibilities. “Since you seem to be having trouble communicating your feelings verbally, I thought that maybe you could draw them! You know, like when I was little and I got upset over something, but didn’t want to talk about it. Mom would give me paper and crayons, so I could draw it instead!”

“Need I remind you, that I am not the child in this situation,” Togami replied petulantly, although that fact did nothing to stop him from sitting down on the rolling chair and picking up a pen, different from the one that had been offered him.

The office was a silent for a time, save for the scritching of the pen and Komaru- busying herself by re-filing already filed folders so as not to look over the impromptu artist’s shoulder- found herself more than a little impressed at the man’s confidence in skipping over any preliminary pencil work entirely. Just as she had thought, he must be pretty good at drawing on top of everything else. Komaru smiled. Maybe Touko really was onto something after all…

“Togami-chi!” The office door flew open so vigorously that Komaru nearly thought a sudden hurricane had whipped up, bringing an uprooted palm tree along with it. “I started up a betting pool around the office that you would _hate_ the new granola bar they just added to vending machines, so like my dinner for the next week is kind of riding on you tasting this-”

“Get _OUT_!”

Komaru had never heard Togami screech before, she thought as he threw himself bodily across the page he had been diligently working on.

“Paper work,” Komaru explained apologetically, slowly shutting the door in front of a bewildered Hagakure. “Report on, uh, getting the Towa City toilet factory back in working order. Due today. You know how it is. _Shhh_!”

Once Hagakure had been shooed away, Togami returned to his task, stone-faced save for the bit of extra color staining his cheeks.

“I only did this so you’d leave me be,” Togami declared after a time, straightening out a crick in his neck before jabbing the finished page in Komaru’s general direction.

Komaru squinted at the artwork held between her hands. It was certainly… more abstract than she had expected of him.

“Darling!” the second person in the past half-hour intruded upon Togami’s office. “I was finally able to make my escape. Naegi just never shuts up, does he?”

“It seems to run in the family,” Togami replied pointedly, frowning in Komaru’s direction.

“It does, doesn’t it?” Touko muttered, craning to peek at the artwork held in Komaru’s hands, before taking it from her entirely, brows furrowed, thumb jammed between her teeth. “H-hey, Omaru, did you write this? It's actually really good... ”

It was just a hunch, but Komaru thought that she might have been more focused on the story than the art.

Komaru shook her head, beaming at the man beside her. “Togami-san did.”

“Byakuya-sama…" Touko gasped. "I don’t know what to say…. I’ve never been so happy!” she exclaimed, throwing her arms around him.

Komaru was glad that she had understood the comic strip at least. That was love for you, she supposed with a grin, shutting the door behind her.

 

 

 


End file.
